Robe Rocks into New Year with Dick Clark

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Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs and REDWash 3•192 LED wash lights were put through their paces in Hollywood by lighting designer Lee Rose of Burbank-based Design Partners Inc for the famous “Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve” show.

Aired every New Year's Eve on America's ABC network, the show runs from 10 p.m. on 31st December until 2 a.m. on 1st January and has been hosted by American television legend Dick Clark since its first broadcast in 1972/73.

The program typically consists of a live telecast from Times Square, NYC, counting down till the renowned New Year Ball Drop. Since 2005, Ryan Seacrest has hosted the outdoor show in Times Square with Clark commenting from a studio. After the Ball Drop, the programme's focus switches to pre-recorded musical segments filmed in Hollywood. This year, these were filmed at Stage 1 of Centrestaging Studios in Burbank, California and lit by Rose. The special runs live in the Eastern Standard time zone, and is delayed for the US's 3 other time zones, allowing them to ring in the new year with Clark when midnight strikes in their areas.

Rose has been involved with lighting the Hollywood sections of the show since 1985. This year, he and production designer Bruce Ryan were again asked onboard to ensure that the Burbank elements of the show looked fabulous by producer Larry Klein. PRG's LA office supplied the lighting equipment.

Twelve Robe ColorSpot 1200s and 2 REDWash 3•192s were used on the production which features two performance stages. The ColorSpot 1200s were positioned on the floor, and used for high powered aerial effects which were extremely eye-catching on camera. The REDWash 3•192s were used behind the show's Hollywood party host Fergie.

It was the first time that Rose has used Robe fixtures on one of this designs and he was impressed by their brightness and speed of movement. He liked the different (rectangular) shape of the lightsource in the REDWashes which looked interesting on camera as well as producing a great range of colours and fantastic animations.

The Robes were programmed by Paul Lennon using a Virtuoso console, along with all the other moving lights.

This year's music sections featured performances by Fall Out Boy, Natasha Bedingfield, Solange, Robin Thicke, Will.i.am and Jesse McCartney who all helped Dick Clark and America rock into 2009 in grand style.